The strike by the health workers union, JOHESU has claimed the nation’s only neuropathologist, Professor EU Akang. He died of a heart condition on December 30, 2014 on his way to a private hospital to seek medical assistance. The 52-year old Professor Akang, who had become ill and was experiencing some symptoms, put a call on the day to a cardiologist at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, seeking assistance.

Already assured that he could come to the hospital’s accident and emergency department, the professor was driven down to be met at the hospital’s emergency department by a senior registrar in cardiologist, who claimed not much could be done for him, but subsequently referred him to a private hospital.

The professor, who already had challenges breathing and really sick, however, was not fortunate to get to the private hospital because he died on the way. Chief Medical Director, UCH, Professor Temitope Alonge, in a reaction to his death that spread through the hospital and his professional colleagues, described the incident as unfortunate. The CMD, while stating that all the various machinery at the emergency department should have been deployed maximally to attend to him, declared “I want to believe that the strike action and the fact that the facilities available at the emergency department not been fully utilised contributed to his death.”